If Discipline is Hard, Do This Instead
My niece was growing up. She was a cute little baby. One day, my sister posted a video of my niece walking on the floor. I was surprised because she could walk faster than I expected. She walked step by step. Sometimes her body did not balance. Then … she fell onto the floor. After that, she tried to get up and walked again. She fell and walked again.
She is the same as other little babies. But, she teaches me something. She teaches me about the baby step. I mean a very small step that we can do before we take the big step.
Do you think that discipline is hard?
Hmm … Let me tell you something.
Previously, when I woke up in the morning I thought that I have to finish one big project fast. I had to be more disciplined with my schedule. But my mind did not allow me to take action at all. I didn’t know why. I couldn’t even try to start the project. I was overwhelmed with the plan. I stopped before I started.
Then I realize that I just have to take a tiny step, like a baby.
As coach Aji stated, that we can execute a habit or action easily by taking a baby step.
I tried to fit this suggestion in my project. I did an experiment.
I applied it to my writing project. I made a new schedule and tried to stick to it. I wrote at least 300 sentences in an hour, in the early morning before I began my daily activity. I thought that 300 sentences were short and I could do it easily. It was my baby step. It built my discipline easily. My mind was not overwhelmed anymore because it wasn’t hard. Even writing 200 sentences or 100 sentences were easier to do, right?
Then, I try this baby step technique for another project. I use it to change my life project. Yap. I want to drastically change the way of life by doing the baby step consistently. Because it’s not only about the result, but also the day to day process. The discipline. It’s easier to control the process than the result. In other words, the result is an accumulation of the process. The discipline process.
I believe that discipline is a keystone of our accomplishments.
Now, imagine that you want to run 10 km. You can chunk down the training process into a little process. Perhaps, you set your training schedule 3 times a week every 4 p.m. You run 1 km for three months. You run 2 km in the next month. Then … you increase the distance become 4 km, and so on until you break the limit. And you can practice it deliberately. Every time you are consistent with this process, you’ll feel that running 10 km is quite easy.
The important thing is you have to stick to the schedule. You have to train your discipline muscles. Gain it! Gain it!
Jim Rohn said, “Discipline is a bridge between goals and accomplishments.”
We can take the baby steps in many aspects of our life. It’s a very little step that we can take. Like eating a plate of food. We eat the food spoon by spoon until the plate is empty.
The big step is good but the baby step is easy.
What is your goal then? What do you want to achieve?
Perhaps, you want to start a healthy lifestyle, a productive lifestyle or a better life project. Whatever. It’s up to you. But, if the process is hard, let’s take the baby step first, consistently.
Hopefully, you can be more disciplined.
